My 93' Corolla from New Zealand (JDM AE100)

Thanks mate :cheers:

Thanks! That's awesome to hear! :woot:. Glad you like the new wheels.

Couldn't resist taking one more photo -

 

thanks for sharing your corolla.this was the first time that i was able to see your pinstripe, even though i've looked at your car for the nth time.... looks more and more amazing ...

 

^ My pleasure bro. Thanks for the compliment

Some new photos taken over the last few days:

 

I eliminated my two front door locks today by installing some rear door handles in the front doors. Wasn't as easy as I thought it would be as one of the mounting tabs on each of the front doors didn't line up to the rear handles so I had to make a custom bracket to bridge the two points together, but the effort was all worth it in the end. Looks so much cleaner and should act as a deterrent to thieves.

Here's some pics:

 

Here's a shot from today:

 

A few new pics:

 

Decided to take a few more photos of my car today to really put my new camera to the test. All of the photos are completely natural and unedited, straight from the camera - So no HDR or enhancement etc:

 

Some new shots from me:

 

I went on a bit of a shooting spree today. Took loads of photos but these 7 were my favourite:

 

Here's one that I took a few hours ago:

 

I bought and installed a new radiator today as I discovered a hairline crack in the top tank of the original copper radiator which was causing the coolant to dribble out and spray all around my engine bay.

I was thinking about going for a brand new aftermarket copper radiator, but for a similar price I managed to find a full alloy radiator and luckily snapped up the last one they had in stock. It's more than double the thickness of the original copper radiator and looks a lot better too

 

Here's a photo I took yesterday:

 

I added another rare optional extra to my collection today. It's called a 'conlight'. At first I had no idea what it was and had only ever seen a tiny thumbnail of one in the original sales brochure. There is absolutely no information or pictures of them anywhere online so I wasn't sure if it was a light, a sensor, a strobe light for some quirky Japanese outdoor dancing, or what the heck it was, but after looking at it a little longer I figured out that it's an automatic headlight sensor!!

The clear lens faces towards the front windscreen and detects the level of light outside. As soon as the sun sets and the light level is low enough (or you go under a bridge etc) the park lights and/or headlights will come on, depending how dark it is. The headlight stalk is always set to off as the sensor does all of the work (however you can switch the unit off or select that you only want the park lights to illuminate so you have manual control over when the actual headlights come on).

It was 100% plug-and-play by using a special loom that it had specifically for this option. All I had to do was unplug my existing combination switch plugs and connect them to the new connectors, which basically just acts as an extension with wires branching off it for the conlight to function.

The beauty of this option is that you can never accidentally leave your headlights on as the unit only works when the key is turned to the 'ON' position. It's pretty gimmicky but would have been very revolutionary in it's time. A lot of the newer cars these days don't even have such a feature as it seems to only be limited to up-market and 'luxury' cars.

I personally think it's a great quirky piece of Japanese ingenuity and it's another thing to add to my growing list of optional extras

Here's a pic from the original sales brochure, followed by pics of the actual unit taken by myself:

 

I made a short video of the automatic headlight sensor (conlight) in action. Click the link below to check it out:
MVI_1911.mp4 video by tokeitup | Photobucket

Here's my latest find at the junkyard yesterday - A rare OEM A-pillar map light! This is yet another rare item on the options list and the first I've seen with my own eyes in real-life. It was fitted to an AE101 FX-GT so I quickly grabbed it as soon as I saw it . It gets held to the A-pillar by a thin metal bracket which goes on the underside of the pillar and had screws that go through to the map light. The wiring runs down the pillar, under the dash and ends up just behind the ashtray. In typical Toyota fashion, it's 100% completely plug-and-play!! . It simply uses the main connector for the ashtray light and cigarette lighter socket. All you have to do is unplug your existing plug, connect the male plug to the female connector of the map light and do the same with the other plug. Literally a 10-second job to plug in.

The arm can move and be positioned towards your map book or phone etc and can either be set to have a wide spread of light by leaving the arm in it's shortest position length-wise or you can choose to have a more focused direction of light by gently pulling on the arm to extend it a bit, which moves the bulb closer to the end of the tube. The bulb is a standard incandescent bulb and looks to be replaceable. The end of the arm is held in place by a strong magnet to prevent it from moving around while you're driving. To use the light you simply just pull it away from the magnet and adjust it to the position you want to illuminate. There doesn't seem to be an on/off switch so I assume it comes on automatically as soon as the head is removed from the magnet and turned off as soon as the head is touching the magnet again.

Hoping to install it in the near future. Since you have to drill three holes (two for the bracket and one for the wiring) I'll probably take my time and mark out the holes perfectly so that it sits dead straight when mounted. I haven't used a map book in about 5-years since there's no need with GPS systems these days, but it's yet another rare option to add to my list which is bound to come in useful in future 8)

Here's some photos I took:
















And here's my latest find at the junkyard today - A genuine TRD cat-back exhaust and Version S high response TRD muffler. The tip had already been taken, which works better for me since I have to use a tip that isn't too large so I don't melt my rear lip. Both pieces only cost me a mere $24 NZD ($19 USD).

 

I installed the A-pillar map light today!! . The install was nice and straight-forward and ended up being 100% plug-and-play like I thought it was going to be. I went to the junkyard before doing the install and bought the grey A-pillar trim which the map light was originally fitted to so I could use it to mark out the holes on mine to ensure they were in the dead right position before drilling into my pillar trim. The install took about 30-minutes all up. I took my time to make sure everything was straight and dropped the lower dash panel down to route the wiring to the cigarette lighter connector. As suspected, the light turns on as soon as you pull it away from the magnet and turns off as soon as it's clipped back onto the magnet. Works when the key is turned to the 'ACC' or 'ON' position. Looking forward to seeing how bright it is at night

It was difficult to take pics since there isn't much light on that part of the interior even at the best of times, but with a bit of patience I managed to take these:

 

Here's my latest mod - AE111 Toyota Carib BZ Touring wagon sideskirts!!! . I've wanted these particular sideskirts for a long time, but didn't want to pay the price that the mainstream wreckers charge so have been waiting for a set to come into the junkyard. Seems that my patience paid off because when I was out of town the other week an AE111 1998 Toyota Carib came into the junkyard and it was Super White (040) just like my Corolla!!!! :shock:. It had been in quite a serious frontal accident but the sideskirts were still in mint condition. I fitted them today and took some photos a few hours ago.

They're a perfect fit for the Corolla as the sill length is identical and they're based on the same platform as the AE101 Corolla BZ Touring wagon. They look a lot more suitable than my previous sideskirts and tie in better with the front and rear lip, rather than looking out of place by being a different height. My next plan is to replace the front lip with another one that I've been looking for but haven't been able to find yet. After that I'll be completely happy with the exterior of the car

Here's the photos I took today after fitting the new sideskirts:

 

Those are pretty cool A-pillar maplights!

 

^ Thanks . Pretty nifty thing to have.

I am VERY excited to share the news with everyone that my Corolla is now complete with a 4A-GE 20v Blacktop engine . It has been four long years and my dream of having a Blacktop has finally come true. I kept it a huge secret from almost everyone as I wanted there to be a large element of surprise as I know there are a lot of people out there who were eagerly awaiting this swap to happen.

The engine has done 120,000km, has had the timing belt and water pump done etc and is mated to a C56 5-speed gearbox. I saw this as the perfect time to do the swap as I'm almost done with the exterior modifications and am very happy with the way the interior is looking, so I wanted to stay true to my word of installing the Blacktop as a finishing touch on the car.

All in all I'm over the moon with the swap and literally can't wipe the smile off my face. The last thing holding my Corolla back was the engine, so now that it's had the transplant I can enjoy the car even more over the many more years of future ownership.

Here's some pics. I still have to reinstall my TRD strut brace and the short ram intake is only temporary until I can remake my previous cold air intake system as the old piping was a little bit too short to fit the Blacktop:

 

I chucked my TRD strut brace back on today, as well as tidied up a few other things on the inside:




I also attended an AE101 Owners Club meet and took a bunch of photos

 

I installed the standard airbox/ducting today and reinstalled the oil catch can. Looking how I want it now!